This invention relates to a connector.
For connecting a pair of wire harnesses together in a wire-installing operation in an automobile, metal terminals, provided respectively at ends of wires, are beforehand received in connector housings, and are thus protected, and after the wire harnesses are brought into an installing site, the two connector housings are fitted together. In recent years, with the increase and complication of circuits, there is a tendency to divide such wire harness into a plurality of sections and to handle them. For example, a wire harness is divided into a plurality of sub-harnesses corresponding respectively to associated equipments, and the sub-harnesses are provisionally assembled at different places, respectively, and then are brought into a predetermined installing site, and are connected to mating wire harnesses. It is desired that metal terminals, provided respectively at ends of wires of the provisionally-assembled sub-harnesses, should be beforehand received in connector housings in view of the completely-assembling of the sub-harnesses at a later stage.
Generally, one connector housing is connected to one mating or corresponding connector housing. Therefore, when there are a plurality of mating connector housings, corresponding to one sub-harness, because of a circuit construction, this sub-harness is heretofore divided into sections corresponding in number to the mating or corresponding connector housings, and connector housings are connected to these sub-harness sections. Therefore, the number of the connector housings increased, and there are encountered disadvantages such as the increased cost of the parts and the increased time and labor for the assembling operation.
This invention has been completed under the above circumstances, and an object of the invention is to provide a connector in which the number of connector housings can be reduced.
The above problem is solved by a connector of aspect 1 of the present invention comprising a first connector and a second connector which can be fitted together, wherein the first connector is a division connector including a plurality of first connector housings received in a frame, and the second connector includes at least one second connector housing. When the first and second connectors are fitted together, metal terminals, received in the one second connector housing, are connected respectively to metal terminals received in a plurality of first connector housings. Namely, the one second connector housing is connected to the plurality of first connector housings in straddling relation thereto.
The invention of aspect 2, depending from aspect 1, is characterized in that the second connector is a division connector including a plurality of second connector housings received in a frame, and when the first and second connectors are fitted together, one of the first connector housings is connected to a plurality of second connector housings in straddling relation thereto.
In the invention of aspect 1, one second connector housing is connected to a plurality of first connector housings in straddling relation thereto. Therefore, in the case where there are a plurality of mating connector housings, corresponding to one sub-harness, for example, when connecting a pair of wire harnesses together, it is only necessary to use one connector housing although it has heretofore been necessary to provide connector housings each corresponding to a respective one of the mating connector housings, and therefore the number of the housings is reduced.
In the invention of aspect 2, the first and second connector housings are connected together in straddling relation to each other, and therefore the number of the connector housings can be reduced, and the degree of freedom of the construction is enhanced.